Tag: Boomers

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I have a friend who has a hard time leaving any gathering…a meeting, a party, the restaurant, the office. She stalls, complements the host, promises to reconnect, pulls a thread for a new conversation, sets up the next...more

A decade ago, concern about the exit of the baby boom generation from nonprofit leadership started to take shape. The dominant narrative which emerged predicted the sector was headed into a crisis – so many boomers would be leaving positons that organizations would be unable to fill top jobs unless...more

Even though we’re not going back to school, we at the Building Movement Project have entered the fall thinking about the year ahead. We are meeting on leadership, service and social change, and movement building; and like everyone else, our plate stays full and we only wish we...more

It IS happening! The older Boomers are starting to leave top roles in nonprofit organizations, and many more are thinking about what is next. Our latest report in the Life After Leadership Series, New Roles, Few Rules: Planning for Purpose Beyond Position is a much needed look at how...more

The Life After Leadership Project began interviewing leaders in 2012 about the immense generational transfer of talent that is getting underway, and collected information and reflections from over 600 participants through extensive interviews, surveys and focus groups. New Roles, Few Rules, the third in a series of reports, tells a vivid story...more

Since releasing The Leadership in Leaving, BMP has received many different responses, but one that we hear again and again is, “How do I know when it is the right time to leave?”
As the authors of the report point out, “Ending a long-term position can...more

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has featured our new report publication The Leadership in Leaving in their article "Calling it Quits" (pdf). For years we heard that the leadership transitions in the nonprofit sector – the one from aging boomers to the next generations – would result in a mass...more

Earlier this week, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on an interesting phenomenon in Charlotte, North Carolina. It appears that nonprofit executives there are finally proving right the 2006 theory that a mass exodus of long-term nonprofit leaders was on the horizon, as 35 of the city’s nonprofits have changed leaders in the last year. The sector has been talking about this Bridgespan study for years - worrying whether a leadership crisis would really come to pass, and if up to one million leaders would actually transition out of their positions in the next ten years. To date (the recent phenomenon in North Carolina notwithstanding) the sector has found that this mass exodus hasn’t really happened. Long-term nonprofit leaders, especially those from the Baby Boom generation who are entering retirement age, simply aren’t leaving in the same numbers that early analysts had predicted. The questions that still need to be answered are why aren’t they leaving, and what do they plan to do next?

Building Movement Project, in partnership with Encore.org and Clohesy Consulting, recently completed a study on long-term nonprofit leaders over 50 and how they are thinking about their futures. Here, Frances Kunreuther illustrates the potential impact of this transitional moment for the sector - as 10,000 people turn 65 every day and leaders in the Baby Boom cohort begin to think about transitioning out of their current leadership roles.

This report is the second in a series that examines different aspects of a transformational moment for the nonprofit sector, as the baby boomer cohort begin to trainsition out of their current leadership roles and contemplate their next stage of work and life. It focuses on the nonprofit leader’s decision to leave a long-term executive position. More specifically, the report highlights and explores the leadership in leaving as an often neglected aspect of a nonprofit leader’s role that is a key in understanding and successfully completing the exit process.